Mary as the AOC

[thessalonian]

Anyone have a list of quotes by the ECF on Mary as the AOC?

Thanks

[StColette]

Quotes of the Church Fathers, Popes, and Saints:

Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus, speaking of the Fathers, wrote:

... some have employed the words of the Psalmist: "Arise, O Lord, and go into Thy resting place, Thou and the ark of Thy might" and have looked upon the Ark of the Covenant, built of incorruptible wood and places in the Lord's temple, as a type of the most pure body of the Virgin Mary, preserved and exempted from all corruption of the tomb and raised up to such glory in heaven.

Just as the New Covenant surpasses the Old, so the new Ark of the Covenant (Our Lady) is superior to the old. The old Ark contained the word of God inscribed on stone tablets, but the new Ark contained the Incarnate Word of God. The old Ark held the Law that could not justify, but the new Ark held Jesus Christ Who Himself is the eternal New Covenant with God; He Who justifies and saves. Moses placed the manna from the desert before the Tablets in the old Ark of the Covenant, but the new Ark was the repository of the true Manna, the Bread come down from heaven, Jesus Christ the Son of God. The old Ark was made of inanimate materials, but the new Ark is the greatest human person whoever has or ever will live - she whose soul has been adorned by God with a superabundance of the choicest graces.

The Israelites had a great reverential fear for the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament. Only the priests were allowed to touch it. The Lord struck down Oza for touching the Ark when the Israelites were moving it to Jerusalem (2 Kings 6:6-7). And the Ark of the Covenant proved to be a blessing for Obededom and all his household when it stayed in his house for three months (2 Kings 6:10-11). How much more then is loving respect and honor due to the new Ark of the Covenant - the Magnificent Mother of God. For it is through Mary's fiat that we have received such a glorious Savior Who redeemed us by His Holy Cross and nourishes us with His Body and Blood.

In a Coptic sermon, attributed to St. Anthanasius {died: 373 A.D.; feast: May 2}, the Holy Virgin is thus addressed:

"O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides."

Gregory of Neo-Caesarea (3rd Century) quotes Psalm 132 as referring to Mary: "Arise O Lord to Thy resting place; Thou and the ark of Thy sanctification" (Psalm 132:8). In this regard, he said, "For the holy Virgin is in truth an ark, wrought with gold both within and without (Exodus 25:10-11, 37:1-2), that has received the whole treasury of the sanctuary" (Homily I on the Annunciation).

Romanos Melodes: ‘The the ark prefigured the Virgin who gave birth to God, the propitiation of the world, for in it lay the urn with the manna that fed Israel’

St. Germanus of Constantinople: ‘spiritual and divine ark of the New Covenant’

St. Andrew of Crete ‘See here the new ark of the glory of God in which lies the golden urn that contained the manna that fed Israel’

Richard of St Victor (1073) called Her Foederis Arca, the Ark of the Covenant, about 1,000 years after her birth.

Pseudo-Proclus. 'She is the ark, guilded inside and outside, sanctified in body and spirit, where were found the thurible of gold and the urn with manna’

[thessalonian]

Thanks. Those help. If anyone has one by Augustine that would be great. I seem to remember one but can't find it. Of course he only wrote 16 million pages I heard it estimated once. It has been said that if any man says he has read all of Augustine he is a liar.

Edited September 1, 2005 by thessalonian